Coffee! Who doesn’t love coffee! Well if you just raised your hands then you must be a fan of tea then! But no matter because this post isn’t quite so much about coffee as it is about the cup that its served in.
Now it’s pretty obvious that we all live in a fast paced society. Not that it’s our desire to do so but social norms just dictate it to be as it is which means we lack personal time and we end up lagging behind on things we should do like spend time with our children, play with our pets etc. However the fast pace of life and the guilt of not balancing our work life has never stopped us from committing/indulging in the guilty pleasure of coffee.
But much like everything else in our lives, the coffee isn’t personal – meaning to say we really don’t make one for ourselves (even if we do it’s likely just the result of an ‘arm aching’ pop of a pre-mixed sachet into a cup). So we turn to coffee on the go – we exchange a few sheets of green for a steaming cup of coffee and we’re good to go. Only problem is the cup isn’t reusable and it’s probably made from paper or Styrofoam – both bad news for the environment and the effect is doubled because million repeat the coffee on the go process each day, some even twice a day.
Well I suppose since the world is now very much into ‘bring your own bag’ for shopping, then why not a ‘bring your own cup’ for coffee routine? Clearly a normal mug whilst reusable won’t do because you can’t run or drive with it and the cleaver people at green companies such as KeepCup, Ecotainer and Eco-Cup picked up on it, each then came out with their own green designs.
Frankly they all look pretty much alike – in fact similar to your conventional coffee cups but the difference is they are made from sustainable materials. Styrofoam and paper are replaced by polypropylene #5, porcelain and silicone and sustainable wood fiber and plants.
Honestly I like the KeepCup design because it’s cute and it comes in colour but the idea of hot beverage going into a plastic container (even if it is recyclable) seems no different to having it in Styrofoam. The Eco-Cup™, Single-Wall Porcelain Mug would probably be the better alternative.
Now I just need to check if those coffee on the go places will encourage me to use my own cup!
Most coffee places will put your coffee into a to-go mug. Places like Tim Horton’s will even knock 10c off the price for you if you use your own cup. I believe Starbucks does the same thing. You just need to be firm when you ask the younger people, they seem to dislike the ”inconvenience” that it makes. Good luck!
Oh brilliant to know that, especially the part about ’being firm’. I actually had one who told me ’no’. Now I know it’s because he was just lazy!